A note: I am Christian. And I am Catholic. And although, having been raised Protestant, I have more than a little "God helps those who helps themselves" influence wired into my brain, I also believe that it's a sign of weak faith for people to take matters into their own hands, try to control a situation's outcome or even other people. Whatever happened to prayer?

That people stand outside Terri Schiavo's hospice, praying for her, is encouraging and positive. It's the people who deride and threaten and hate that scare me, because they seek to divide rather than unite. In the same way that people who blow up abortion clinics make all pro-lifers look bad, and that priests who abused children undermined everything the good priests did for their communities and their Church, these "Christians" make it easier for non-Christians to hate us. Then what? We could all go around beating our breasts about persecution? Oh, wait - don't those people already cry persecution when things don't go their way - prayer is removed from schools, or a menorah is erected beside a Nativity scene?

Non-Christians believe Christians are intolerant because a tiny minority is allowed to speak and act for all of us, to perpetuate myths about our beliefs. Unfortunately, the media love controversy, and with more of them focusing on religion than they did prior to the election, they will go where the ratings lie - to the protestors.

Which leaves Christians with one of the hardest challenges of all: turn the other cheek. Not to promote a groundswell of "proving" to the media and to everyone else how good we are; but to take what is evil in the world and make something good of it. One of the greatest examples of this kind of courage was the Ten Boom family, who humbled themselves for Christ's sake. Surprisingly, often love really is enough.

4 Comments:

Wonderfully said. As a fellow Catholic, I get so annoyed when the news goes and finds the one weirdo out of the entire group to interview and then tries to portray that person as the norm. And like you, I realize that frankly the only thing I can do is live my faith and hopefully the people around me will realize that Christianity is not about hate, but about the awesome power of Mercy, Divine Mercy, a love so strong that not even death could stop it. Thank you again.

I sure wish that "Christian" in the White House had a lot more of the compassion for the poor as taught by Jesus. And I wish he had a lot less propensity for war and the death penalty, as taught, also by the man we call the Prince of Peace. I don't think Christ would be advocating the senseless wars Dubya has got us into, nor the tax cuts for the rich, nor his denial that so many people so desperately need health care. Nor restructuring Social Security so as to cut benefits for elderly poor and middle class people. No, I think it is people like George W. Bush who give Christians a bad name.

Hi Mom. ;) Actually, I think the beauty of the ten Booms' humility was that Corrie did feel angry at God, but got over it once she realized His greater plan for her.

Greyhound, I'm going to refer to Newsguy's blog about context. http://kalamazoopride.blogspot.com/2005/03/how-news-business-buries-truth.html. I haven't talked much about my work (hoping to change that), but about a third of it is journalistic in nature, and I can relate to how difficult it is to find context - which of course makes me want to pursue it that much more (not to mention how hard it can be to get sources to go on the record to give you context).

I also want to refer to Newsguy's comment that these Christians should have remembered Terri was going to a better place. http://kalamazoopride.blogspot.com/2005/03/puzzled-by-these-christians-in-schiavo.html The ultimate in Christian love and mercy is to let go of our brothers and sisters into God's arms.

Newsguy - great points both, and in your comment. I'm in agreement with you. I think simply that Dubya is cut out of the same piece of cloth as many of these other people. I do wonder what this country will look like when my son is old enough to be affected by these decisions. Trying to keep in perspective that many other parents have felt the same way, but it's still scary.